A Knights Task
by IntimateEvil
Summary: A Knight of The Evil Queen is to lose his heart, unless a deal can be made. Rumpelstiltskin offers one, however vague it may be.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter #1

"You fool!" Shouts The Evil Queen and stares down furiously "How could you let Snow White escape! I gave you one simple task!" Her black dress flows on the ground like fire as she paces back and forth before the kneeling Knight.

"My Queen…" The Knight starts and stares at the ground intently, trying not to aggravate his Queen any further.

"Shut up!" Regina snarls and stops in front of him "Get him out of my sight" She says to the nearby guards and they roughly grab the Knight under his arms, with a strong and quick pull the Knight releases himself from their grip and stares them down, his nearly black eyes like daggers. The Knight growls in pain as he is consumed in fire and forced down my Regina's powerful magic "You have heart… Perhaps I should change that" Regina steps forward with her claw like hand reaching for the Knights chest but is abruptly stopped by sounds of harsh footsteps sprinting towards the chamber.

"My Queen!" The guard shouts and stops to catch his breath.

"What is it! Can't you see I'm busy?" The Queen retracts her hand and tilts her head in anger staring at the panting guard.

"Snow White was spotted! Along with the Prince" The guard stands up straight as Regina swoops over to him and grabs his collar.

"Where?" Regina tightens her grip.

"I don't know my Queen, I was only told to inform you!" The guard tries to cower but can't move and Regina throws him back into the doorway knocking him off his feet, he quickly tries to recover scrambling to his feet and looks down.

"Idiot" Regina looks back to the large Knight kneeling, his hands at his sides and his black armor lightly shimmering in the moonlight "I'll be back for your heart soon enough, bring him to the dungeon" She quickly starts for the door and the cowering guard turns and starts walking down the dank corridor guiding the Queen.

The two guards reach for the Knight but stop as he slowly stands up and turns to face them. The Knight slowly looks them both up and down.

"Try it"

The Queens Guards slightly step back and look at each other and reach for their swords.

"You're unarmed! Stand down!" One of the guards shouts. The Black Knight looks him dead in the eye and the guard tries to keep his calm staring at the black plated metal along the Knights arms and chest and along his legs, the Knights helmet has jagged points all around with metal blade looking spikes rowing down the top of his head to the back. The blackness of the eye slits make the guard think of death himself and the guard draws his sword and holds it out trying not to let it shake too bad, the other guard readies his sword as well. The Knight quickly reaches out with his chainmail gloved hand and grabs the guards swords blade and twists it out of his hand and tosses it aside, the second guard lunges forward and the Knight quickly dodges and turns around smashing the guard in the face with his elbow sending the guard onto his back crying out in a gurgling shout. The first guard turns and quickly darts out the door and the Knight turns to the table on the far side of the room where his sword and shield lie.

A thunder of footsteps ring out down the corridor and the Knight sprints to the table and readies his weapon, and sea of faces and armor stamp into the room and quickly corner the Knight, spears and swords point all waving and jabbing towards him, beckoning him to dare to come near. The Knight swings his swords trying to keep the small army at bay and checks his options for escape; none.

"This doesn't have to end bloody!" One of the guards shouts out from the crowd. The Knight hisses and lunges towards the crowd and the guards, almost as one take a step back and quickly steps back forward forcing the Knight to retreat. A loud crack and black smoke explodes between the Knight and the guards flinging the guards back and slamming the Knight back into the wall.

"Hehehehe!" A wicked laugh rips through the rooms and before them stands a strangely dressed man with a shimmering gold face. The man looks to the guards on the floor and waves his hand sending them further back sliding them on the floor and smashing them into the wall behind them, the men grown and rolls around in agony. "I need this one!" The man turns back to the Knight with his hand still in the air with his palm towards the ceiling smiling widely. The Knight regains his stature and takes a wide swing at the man. "Ah ah ah!" the man cackles and easily moves out of the way and places his hand on the Knights shoulder and in a flash of white light the air itself changes and the Knight loses balance and lands face first into a pile of leaves.

"Agh!' The Knight yelps and rolls over examining the new forested environment. "Where have you taken me fiend?!" The Knight quickly stands and tries to ready his sword but screams as his palm begins to burn as the hilt of his sword flashes a smoldering red. The Knight releases the sword and has to quickly rip off his chain metal gloves as well and tosses it to the ground and glares at the man and tries to take a step forward but is stopped as roots rip up through the dirt tightly gripping his ankles and wrists making movement impossible.

"Relax dearie! Although I like your fighting spirt, means you're a good candidate!" The gold faced man snickers and dances around making various gestures with each word. The Knight stares at the strange man.

"A candidate for what? Who are you?" The Knight continues to hopelessly attempt to escape from the roots.

"Who am I? He he he! Why I'm Rumplestiltskin!" He waves his hands around in the air.

"The Dark One!? What do you want with me!?" The Knight struggles further and the roots grip tighter and cause the Knight to grit his teeth in pain.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you dearie!" Rumplestiltskin gestures towards the roots "Those will slice right through ya! Hehehe! Now come on Aiden! Take a load off! Hehehe!"

"How do you know my name!?" Aiden shouts and screams as the roots start to crush his armor into his legs. Aiden can feel trickles of blood drip down his feet.

"Oh I know a lot about Sir Aiden! How you were once an honored Knight of King Midas! Tell me dearie, what made you go Dark Side? Hehehe!" Rumplestiltskin dances around Aiden.

"None of your damn business!" Aiden hisses under his black helmet trying his best to follow the circling Rumplestiltskin. He stops in front of him and grabs his helmet and takes it off Aiden's head and dances away tossing it to the side. Rumplestiltskin suddenly stops and turns to Aiden and moves in close grabbing him by chin digging his nails into his black five-o'clock shadow.

"Now you listen to me, I need something, and you're going to fetch it like the good little lap dog you are" Rumplestiltskin menacingly stares at Aiden.

"Why would I help you?" Aiden says through gritted teeth.

"You want to keep that ticker of yours don't ya?" Rumplestiltskin taps Aiden's chest motioning towards his heart. "Regina wants it; I can get her to… Drop all charges if you will, for a deal that is" He lets go of Aiden and paces back and forth, Aiden's eyes cautiously follow him.

"What could I possible get for you that you can't get yourself?" Aiden asks snarkly. Rumplestiltskin stops and sharply looks at him.

"Because what I require isn't from here" He motions around "I need someone to retrieve it for me"

"So you will have me go to another land?"

"Now you're catching on! Hehehe!" Rumplestiltskin rapidly claps his hands and his wicked smile returns "Well another world really!"

"Another world?" Aiden replies squinting in confusion.

"Well it's a long story, but basically I need you to travel to another land to gather skills necessary to retrieve the item I need!"

"I have skills to defeat any who stand in my path!" Aiden puffs his chest out and looks down his nose at Rumplestiltskin.

"Hehehe! No no no dearie! Where you're going it will take a lot more then 'little sword tricks'! Hehehe you will need a whole new arsenal of tricks to take on what is in store for you! But I'm getting ahead of myself!" Rumplestiltskin reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small object that looks like a clear bean.

He then makes what looks like random motions in the air and a small backpack of sorts poofs out of nowhere into his hand. He tosses the bean onto the ground and a massive gust of wind forces Aiden to look away. Beaming green light pierces the darkness and Aiden tries to look and sees what looks like a portal in the ground, the roots around Aiden's arms and feet loosen and he collapses to his knees. Rumplestiltskin tosses the backpack and Aiden catches it against his chest.

"I don't even know my task!" Aiden shouts over the loud whipping and warping noises the portal is making.

"Instructions are in the bag! Hehehe! Don't keep me waiting!" Rumplestiltskin dances over behind Aiden and kicks him into the portal.

Aiden tightly clutches the bag and clenches his eyes shut but is still almost blinded. The loud buzz off the portal almost deafen Aiden and with a loud crack toss' Aiden up in the air and violently smash him against the hard packed dirt of a new land.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter #2

"Ughhhh…" Aiden coughs and tries to shield his eyes from the sun. Almost instantly over heating Aiden starts to try and remove his heavy armor but suddenly stops as he hears footsteps. Aiden quickly stands up and does a quick survey of his location; a dirt road in what looks like in the middle of two mountains. "Bastard tosses me into a new land and doesn't even give me the courtesy of a weapon" Aiden murmurs to himself looking around to find the source of the footsteps; nothing. Suddenly Aiden is forced to instinctively look up as he feels the cold sharp edge of a blade being pressed against his throat.

"Shhhh!" Aiden hears from behind him by the unknown assailant "Damn it Kai! Shut up! I'm sure he heard you a mile away!" The assailant forces Aiden to his knees.

"Why the hell are you saying my name!" Presumably Kai shouts from a small hill. Almost instantly Aiden is face to face with what looks like an 8 year old kid with slicked back black spiked hair with a toothy smile. Kai smiles at Aiden and starts to poke at his armor. "Sweet armor! Where did you get it?" Aiden stays quiet trying not to move around too much with the cool steel still firmly against his neck. Kai starts to tug at Aiden's armor rocking him back and forth nicking his neck drawing a little blood. With a powerful elbow back Aiden catches the one behind him perfectly knocking him back and grabs Kai by the throat and lifts him up and slams him into the dirt.

"Make a move and I snap his neck!" Aiden snarls and looks back to see the other one is gone. Aiden tightens his grip with full intentions of breaking the kids' neck but is met with his entire body feeling a massive bolt of pure electricity and shrieks back clutching his arm and collapses. Kai kicks Aiden and forces him onto his back and Kai quickly stands over him.

"That metal suit of yours conducts electricity pretty well! Huh?" Kai holds up his hand with little sparks of electricity arcing between his fingers. Kai rubs his hands together and places them on his chest sending a massive jolt of electricity through him. Aiden cries out in agony and tries to fight back but is powerless against this kind of attack.

"Cut it out Kai!" The other one pulls Kai off Aiden.

"But Zane…" Kai looks down as though he is in trouble. Zane, the obviously older one looks down at Kai with pity.

"Come on, grab his bag and let's get out of here" Zane gestures to the bag Rumplestiltskin gave Aiden and Kai quickly swoops it up and they both take off down the road, running much quicker than Aiden even thought possible.

"Where the fuck am I…" Aiden says to himself as he sits up trying to stop twitching from all the electricity his body underwent. Aiden stands up and starts to walk the dirt road where the two boys ran while he tries to make out his surroundings. A slight tingle flows deep up and down his body like a cold and hot chill in his veins, he shakes it off and continues down the simple dirt road. He stops as he sees a small simple village in the distance, Aiden sees no defenses and figures it must be a small farming community or something of the sort and proceeds cautiously. He spots the first local dressed in simple shirt and trousers, clearly dirty from a hard day's work, the man wipes his sweat covered forehead with his forearm smearing dark dirt. Aiden approaches cautiously.

"Sir?" Aiden says confidently and the man turns and looks him up and down and answers quizzically.

"Yes? Can I help you?"

"Two young boys came through here with a bag, have you seen them?"

"Oh hahaha" The man bursts out a quick laugh and shakes his head "I believe you're looking for Zane and Kai, they are annoying little kids who have a small shack up on the mountain, just take the path over there" The man points to a small hidden path that leads up "Now if you don't mind me asking, you don't look like you're from around here, what nation are you from?"

"Nation? I'm from The Enchanted Forest" Aiden states simply. The man confusingly raises an eyebrow.

"Ahh you must mean The Hidden Leaf" The man nods his head in satisfaction and turns and goes on his way. Aiden shrugs the statement off and heads towards the path, he quickly looks into the window of the nearby house and sees a simple sword hung on the wall. He leans in and snatches it quickly and heads up the path. The path has been stomped down from years of traffic with plants and dirt ground into one. The air is heavy and wet as he moves up the path uncomfortably in his armor, the clouds overhead look like they will start to rain any moment. As Aiden climbs the path it gets more and more challenging, growing more and more narrow and slippery. Aiden looks down and grips his sword tightly as he in visions himself tumbling down the rocky cliff and grits his teeth. Finally he starts to reach the top and he hears a small chuckle and he stops and listens, it's one of the boys.

"Hahaha we got him good! Too bad he didn't have anything of use, we really should have checked him more, maybe taken that sweet set of armor he had."

"No no no, had we been any longer someone would have seen, the village is already angry enough with us without us turning into full blown bandits, we just need to take what we need to survive"

"I guess you're right brother, I'm sorry for getting carried away"

"It's alright, hey, what's that scroll?" Aiden looks around and slowly inches his way up the path until he sees where the voices are coming from, as small hut with one door dug into the side of the mountain, the door is crude and damaged with flickering lights passing under and through it. Aiden creeps up to the door and peeks through one of the cracks and looks in, nothing? But they were just…

"Ha! Seriously? You're seriously trying to sneak up on us in that loud armor? You have you be kidding!" Damn it! Aiden thinks as yet again the cold edge of a blade presses against his neck. Not again! Aiden elbows back knocking the assailant back and he stands up to face them.

"You have taken what is not yours! Return it now!" Aiden furiously shouts.

"Ooooo we're soooo scared!" The smaller one Kai dances mockingly.

"We already beat you old man, get out of here! How did you even make it up here?" The taller one Zane says fiddling with his dagger.

"NOW! Hand the parchment over!" Aiden shouts even more aggressively, tightening his grip on his sword.

"What, this? Why? What's it for?" The smaller one says holding up a few rolled up pieces of paper with a gold string holding it all together.

"They are orders, I'm on a mission, now hand them over, I will not ask again" Sweat beads down Aiden's brow as the thin wet air makes it hard for him to breathe.

"Cool! What nation are you working for?"

"The Enchanted Forest"

"Enchanted Forest? Do you mean The Hidden Leaf?" The taller one asks.

"No, I mean The Enchanted Forest"

"Sounds lame, a little wimpy if you ask me" The smaller one smirks and starts to undo the gold string and he shrieks and drops the roll of paper and the string glows hot with a light line of sizzling smoke drifting from the spot the boy touched. "What the hell!? What kind of jutsu is that!?"

"It's magic you idiot, have you never heard of it?" Aiden says smugly "What the fuck is Jutsu?" The two boys look at each other in a mixture of confusion and fear before the tall one kicks the pages over to Aiden.

"What did you do that for?" Kai says to Zane.

"Don't be stupid Kai, you heard him, it's not a Jutsu, we don't know what we're dealing with"

"What is this Jutsu you keep talking about?" Aiden says reaching down to retrieve the papers.

"You don't know what a Jutsu is? That would be like saying you don't know what chakra is!" Kai says letting out a small chuckle and looking to his older brother. Aiden just looks at them each confused and all around fed up with them.

"I really don't think he knows Kai" Zane says studying Aiden "You're not from here are you"

"That depends, where 'here' is" Aiden says.

"The Land of Lightning" Zane says stepping slightly closer. Aiden raises his sword at the boy not allowing him any closer. Zane raises his hands still holding his dagger and he opens his palm allowing the dagger to fall to the rocks below his feet with a satisfying *Clink*. Aiden moves his eyes to Kai and he reluctantly does the same. "Look, we just needed some money, and well, you were an easy target"

"Easy target?" Aiden straightens up and extends his sword trying to appear more intimidating.

"Well yeah, you were just lying in the dirt" Kai says trying to hold back a quick laugh and looks down as his older brother gives him a glare.

"You have to understand, it's just me and my brother"

"What about your village?" Aiden motions towards the path leading to the small village below the mountain.

"Oh please, they hate us, we're not even from there" Kai says half sad half trying to sound tough.

"Our village was destroyed" Zane says looking to his brother and looks to the dirt gritting his teeth. "We're the only survivors"

"How?" Aiden says.

"How what?" Kai looks at him.

"How did you survive? You're just kids" Aiden looks at Kai and sees arcs of flashing light between his fingers and Kai glares at him.

"We weren't even in the village when they attacked, we were fishing at the river when we saw the smoke, by the time we got back everyone was dead…" Zane sadly explains and reaches over and tugs Kai's hair making him short out and making the arcs between his fingers stop.

"How does he do that?" Aiden says looking at Kai.

"It's our Kekkei Genkai" Zane says

"Kecky what?" Aiden smugly and quizzically looks at them.

"Our family blood jutsu, it's just a basic electricity jutsu, but, Kai is a little different. Somehow he got, I don't know, super charged"

"You're going to have to slow down, so what, it's in your blood?"

"Kind of, have you really never heard of chakra or jutsu's or anything?" Zane says in disbelief but Aiden just stares at him. "Okay then, well…" Zane begins explaining simple chakra flow and chakra points and how it's needed to use jutsu. Aiden holsters his sword as Zane begins explaining the surrounding Elemental Nations and the various Hidden Villages. By the time Zane had begun explaining in depth on some of the more past news and events, like how the Hidden Leaf was attacked by someone called Orochimaru and how there was a massive battle between the Nine Tails and the One Tail, they were all inside the shack sitting on old raggedy cloths on uncomfortable rock 'chairs'.

"Akatsuki?" Aiden stops Zane as he explains the most recent news of one of the Jinchuuriki going missing and how Zane believes it was the doing of The Akatsuki. Aiden's focus starts to sway when the gripping in his stomach proves to be too much and he looks around. "Do you guys have any food in this place?"

"Not really" Kai says looking down playing with a small rock between his scrappy foot wrappings. "We were going to sell whatever was in your bag but there was nothing but that stupid paper" Aiden's mind is snapped back into place when he remembers his mission and he stands up and looks around for the paper, it had been set on the far side of the shack and he quickly retrieves and starts for the gold string. "Wait! It burned me last time!" Kai says quickly.

"I'm pretty sure that was just a spell put on it so no one else could open it" Aiden hopes his words are true as he tenderly flicks at the string, no sizzling, that's a good sign. Aiden grabs the string and pulls it loose with no issues and the papers open and the string falls to the dusty floor. Aiden begins to read through the first page.

~Dear Dearly Departed

You *insert victim –I mean- "employee" name here* have been chosen by me, Rumplestiltskin, to carry out a very important task, retrieve Pandora's Box! *Insert laugher here*. Now you may be wondering what this object is, don't! You simply need to find it and bring it back to me! The world you are in now is home to all sorts of interesting things, however it is not home to Pandora's Box! *Insert more laughter*. The world you need to go to is currently infested with something known as The Leviathan, these are a vile creature even I can't destroy. You must first train in your current world, and when powerful enough, you will be able to use the summoning spell I have sent with you. Good Luck!

~Sinisterly yours, The Dark One

Aiden closes the parchment slowly and looks up to the two boys.

"So this chakra, how do I use it?"


End file.
